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Poll of a Billion Monkeys

Sunday, September 24, 2006

The Exchange - A Global Network

The Exchange - A Global Network

Don sent me an email in regards to the post about the B Reader. He had a very interesting suggestion about how to implement the site which I found fascinating and was a sort of indirect confirmation of some ideas I had already been considering. I'm going to write him back along with some of my friends in the military, government, law enforcement, etc. with a formal reply, as well as posting my reply to his comments under the post B Reader. That'll be over the next couple of days. I've had so much work to do I'm pretty bloody exhausted right now.

Don also made some suggestions about the appearance of this blog, about the black background, and so forth. He is of the opinion that I should alter the template to a light background instead of using the black one. I like the black background however one reason for the existence of this blog is so that the readers can easily access it, and part of that is being comfortable with the graphic and design presentation.

So I'm leaving it up to my readers to some extent. If you would like me to change the appearance, template, background and other aspects of this blog then just let me know and I'll consider your opinion. You can either leave your comment here or email me with your suggestions. Also if you have any suggestions as to content you'd like to see explored (and some have made suggestions which I haven't ignored, just haven't found the right way to post those ideas yet) or format changes to make it easier to read and use this blog then let me know. I'll take those suggestions under serious consideration as well.

Now onto other things. In the past few days I've been studying my Site Meter, gathering data about those who visit this site and getting a detailed analysis of my readers. I have discovered that most of my readers are North American of course but a sizeable percentage are from Europe and Asia. I had sorta half expected the European audience, but not the Asian audience. I'm not really sure what it is about this blog that specifically appeals to an Asian audience, but I'm glad to have them.

I'm also very glad to have readers from Russia (specifically Moscow) and from Iran. Especially the repeat visitors from Iran.

I have for a long time wanted to help bring about political changes in Iran, as my friends can tell you, long before it was recently fashionable to do so for domestic political and security reasons.

So I'm gonna tell you readers a little story from my personal background to help explain my interest. When I was a kid the Soviet Union and the United States were rather bitter enemies. Long before Perestroika or Glasnost or Gorbachev my father made a prediction that the Soviet Union would fall and Russia would become a more or less free nation, free of communism anyway. I remember going to school and telling my friends this and we all laughed, we all believed the US and the USSR would fight a war one day, not that Soviet communism would fall from within. (I discounted my father's prediction too, at the time.) Years later one of my best friends and I were on the phone talking with absolute amazement and joy about the fall of the Soviet Union (he was a US Army officer) and how amazing it was and I reminded him about the time I had said at school that communism would fall in Russia by it's own weight, because of my father's prediction.

Before that day, in my twenties I had begun to correspond with people all over the world, Europe, South Africa, various other parts of Africa, South and Central America, Hong Kong, Russia. Back in those days we did it with paper, pen, and by post, this was long before the internet or personal computing had become popular. Some of my contacts and correspondents in Russia were military officers, some regular soldiers, and even one psychology student (at the time I was also studying psychology) at the University of Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad University) with whom I exchanged ideas about new Theories of Personality we were both developing. In most of my correspondences with those in Russia my correspondents complained of the political system, the government, of lack of freedom, or fear and resentment against their system. I always encouraged them to help bring about change if they possibly could without endangering their own lives or the lives of their friends and families. I won't go into details but I feel I helped do my part, in my own small way, to assist with change in Russia and bring about the fall of Soviet communism.

I'd like to help do the same in Iran, to help the Iranians, especially the youth of Iran to bring about a peaceful transition away from the mullahs and ayatollahs and towards a true Iranian Republic. So I am honored and gratified to have Iranian readers and if my Iranian readers would like to spread the news about this blog then I'd be happy to get far more Iranian readers. I have no desire at all to see the US and Iran go to war or to fight any more than I had a desire to see the US fight Iraq, though I did and do still support the Iraq War and intend to see a free and peaceful Iraq, and to assist in that endeavor in any way I can. It may eventually be necessary for the US and Iran to go to war but if it can be avoided, then I'd much rather see an internal revolution in Iran, and a peaceful one at that. I don't want to see a bloody Iranian Civil War any more than I want to see a US-Iranian War. Instead I want to see the youth of Iran succeed and bring about a peaceful transition to a free government, and to see them build a true Republic there. So I want my Iranian readers to know that I keep them in my prayers and I'll do what I can from here to help any of them, and if I can ever assist you in some beneficial way then just let me know. Otherwise you can consider this blog a source of information and sometimes even intelligence about the outside world, and you can consider me your friend. God bless you, your nation will be entirely free one day, and have courage. Godspeed and good luck to a free Iran and I encourage you to do what you can to make it that way, short of endangering your own lives and those of your family and friends. You have allies here, in the US, many of them. Pray, work, prepare, and hopefully we will both live to see a free and peaceful Iran that became that way through peaceful means.

I would like to reiterate the same hopes for China. One day I hope very much to see a truly free, and not merely prosperous, Republic in China. I have great respect for and love for both Iran and China as nations and for their peoples. I keep both nations in my prayers, will do what I can to assist both nations in becoming truly free, want to see both succeed, and will be happy to help when and where I can to those ends. So to readers in China and Iran, you are welcome here. Same for my readers in Moscow. I have never forgotten Russia, the contacts I have there, or the nation.

I'd also be more than happy to gain readers in Afghanistan, Pakistan (I have a few friends there, mainly soldiers and police), and Iraq. I'd be pleased to have you as readers, as contacts and possibly even friends.

As for my other readers, in other parts of the world - You are all welcome. I am glad to have you all, and I hope this blog will be of interest to you. Think of me as a contact and a friend. I will present to you what I can in interesting information and content, and you're welcome to send me anything and everything you think might be of interest to me and the other readers of this blog.

I guess what I'm saying is that all of my readers are free to think of this blog as a means of communication, and contact, and intelligence, and information, and you can all think of me as a contact with whom you can share whatever interest you have, personal or professional, or think will be of value to me and my readers. In this way we can together build a world-wide network of contacts and this blog can be far more than just a mere entertainment, it can also be a valuable tool for all those who make use of it.

As for my readers from the US and North America, you are my fellow countrymen and my fellow Americans. I owe you a special debt of gratitude and am glad to have you as readers and patrons. I can't put it much better, or more earnestly than that.

Now for my analysis of the information I gleaned from my Site Meter thus far and to this date:

Visitors by Location:

PortugalEcuadorUnited Arab EmiratesSingaporeIranBelgiumIndiaRomaniaUnited KingdomPhilippinesBrazilRussia, MoscowNew Zealand - I know who that isGermany - I know who that probably isAustraliaFrance

Well, that's about it for this entry. I've been working recently 7 days a week most weeks and about 12 to 16 hours a day to get as much done as possible. I didn't even go to church today just watched a Mass and some religious programming off of the satellite, read some, and worked on-line. I'm pretty exhausted and I'm gonna go take a nap.

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